Dominant first half sets up Cardiff romp over Southern Kings

Jarrod Evans of Cardiff tries to get out of the grip of Kings No 8 Ruaan Lerm in Port Elizabeth on Saturday night. Photo: Deryck Foster/BackpagePix

PORT ELIZABETH – The Southern Kings forgettable PRO14 campaign endured another miserable chapter after a 45-12 loss against the playoff-chasing Cardiff Blues at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.

The visitors stormed into an early lead and took a 33-0 lead into the second half after laying the foundation with a dominant first-half performance.

It took a little over a minute for the visitors to cross the line as Alex Cuthbert helped himself to five points before lock Seb Davies doubled the advantage as the Kings failed to cope with the early onslaught.

The home side settled into the encounter, but failed to make the most of a number of half-chances, and went further behind after Josh Turnbull muscled his way over in the 25th minute.

Willis Halaholo and Kirby Myhill added their names to the scorers’ list as the one-way traffic continued.

The party continued after the break for the Blues as wing Blaine Scully collected a delicate chip in behind the Kings defence and dived over in the corner.

It took all of 47 minutes for the home side to get on to the scoreboard and it came from a moment of brilliance from flyhalf Ntabeni Dukisa.

His try mattered little in terms of deciding the result, but it sparked a much better spell of play from the battered Kings.

Normal service resumed as Myhill dived over from a lineout maul for his second score of the night before the Kings regained control.

Both Martinus Burger and Khaya Majola were denied tries before replacement lock Lindo Welemu broke the shackles as he notched up his first try of the campaign with 10 minutes to play.

The home side continued to dominate, but failed to add further respectability to the score-line having been blown away in the opening 40 minutes.

The bonus-point win leaves the Cardiff Blues an outside chance of progressing into the playoffs with one round of fixtures remaining.